Beirut: Amnesty International on Thursday denounced "shocking crimes" it said were committed against a couple and their toddler in Egypt, including their almost two-year "enforced disappearance".
University teacher Manar Adel Abu el-Naga, her husband Omar Abdelhamid Abu el-Naga -- both 27 -- and their then-one-year-old son were taken on March 9, 2019 by security forces from their home in the city of Alexandria, the rights group said.
But it was not until February 20 this year that Manar appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP), a special branch that deals with state security-related crimes. She was accused of being a member and funding a "terrorist group", and was then remanded in custody pending further investigations, Amnesty’s Philip Luther said. She denies all charges.
The whereabouts of her husband Omar are not known. "The Egyptian authorities have a long, grim record of forcibly disappearing and torturing people they consider government opponents or critics," said Luther.
"However, seizing a young mother with her one-year-old baby and confining them in a room for 23 months... show that their ongoing campaign to stamp out dissent and instil fear has reached a new level of brutality," he added.
Amnesty accused the National Security Agency of having "falsified her arrest date" by pressurising her to say she had been "arrested two days before" her appearance in front of prosecutors.
"There must be urgent, independent and effective investigations into these crimes," Luther said. The couple’s traumatised son, now almost three years old, was put in the care of his maternal relatives, Amnesty said.